The Light Of A Fading Star
by Dean.is.Batman
Summary: Some days The Doctor feels too old for adventures. 11th Doctor.


_Something old, something new._

_Something borrowed, something blue. _

I wish there were words to describe me and my little-big blue box. The TARDIS and the Time Lord - sounds like a lame bar joke gone horribly wrong. I'm a bit touchy about the subject sometimes and sometimes I'm the one telling the lame joke with a laugh and a too-large smile.

Amelia Pond, my current companion, is haunting the wardrobe trying to find a swimming pool for her aching feet. Our last jaunt through time left us both a bit scarred and tired. I wipe a hand across my forehead and draw it back to find beads of sweat dampening the suit cuffs. I sigh heavily, my tired eyes wanting to close and stay that way for a very long time.

_Let the TARDIS fly through space holding its own reigns for a short time. Let wishes be fishes and horses run free. _

"Doctor?" Amelia pulls me out of my tired stupor and I glance over my shoulder towards the sound of her voice. "Why is there a scarf the size of the Earth's circumference in here?"

"Why is anything in here." I reply with a small smile.

"Seriously!" She hates her questions to be ignored or taken lightly. "Did it belong to some alien with an enormously thick neck?"

"You could say that." I answer as I leave the control room and wander back through the shadows and lights to find my companion. "It's one of a few that I have running around. Gifts."

"They're yours!" She sounds shocked and I can picture her green eyes wide with sparks of red eyebrows framing them.

There is a brief pause and I almost let my mind wander before her voice brings me back again.

"Oy! What's this punch of little papers...there's a whole box of them under the party hats!" Her voice has grown muffled and I know she is leaning down to paw through the boxes contents. "TOP SECRET PAPERS! ...This one says you're a -."

"It's slightly psychic paper, Amy!" I call back before she can say whatever fleeting idea has imprinted itself on my stash of psychic paper.

"Oh." Her voice is clearer, closer.

I turn a corner, enter a doorway and see her standing over the box with a confused frown. I walk to her side and put a hand on her shoulder. She has put on a new dress that clings to her figure. It is obsidian black with oscillating dots of blinding color sewn in at random intervals. She sparkles like the sky.

"Yes. I found it some time ago..."

"I thought you only had the one piece." Amy says, blinking in surprise. "What could you possibly need with all this?"

"Who knows." I shrug, not caring or knowing. It will come in handy when it needs to. "It will come in handy when it needs to."

"Hm." She's getting bored with the paper.

I sit down on a small stool that faces the shoe racks. A tall mirror is set to one side and I stare at her reflection in it. Her lips are pursed. I am so very tired. A light trying not to go out, but flickering just the same.

"So, what do you think?" Amy asks in her Scottish accent.

"The dress looks beautiful on you." I answer, staring at her reflection again. "Those are actual exploding stars - compressed and sewn into the fabric. Don't ask how...It'll only make your head hurt. Cloth like that wont be invented for another few thousand years at least."

"A brand new antique?"

"Of course." I smile wider than I have all day. "You really do catch on quick."

"Why thank you, sir." She pretends to tip an imaginary hat.

The Girl Who Waited, the Amelia I have grown to...well, I've got a special place in my heart that grew out of knowing her and that is something special in itself. I want to take her in my arms and swear that everything will be alright, but I have a feeling that it would be a lie. Cracks - the same as the one from her bedroom wall so many years ago - following us through time and space. They're everywhere and I'm feeling too old today.

Like the warm glow from a fading star, I attract Amy even as she draws me in like a last breath of hope on a dying mans lips. Maybe today is only the beginning instead of the beginning of the end. I share a smile with her and then I force my knees to unbend and I stand.

"Where are we off to today - what adventures do you have lurking about for me this time?" She asks excitedly.

"The most adventurous of them all. Come with me." I give her a facetious wink and then we go back to the control room. "The Space Ships of the Molten Sea Worlds." I say as I plot the course.

A fire flares in my chest and both of my hearts begin to pump faster. Soon I will forget any thoughts of being old or useless. I have my companion and an adventure. Everything is looking up suddenly.

A school-boy giggle makes it way up my throat and soon we are both laughing in sweet anticipation. Even if we go to our deaths in the Molten Sea of those alien worlds, we will do so gladly. Together we welcome the has-beens, never-weres and endless possibilities of my existence as a Time Lord.

"Show me those Space Ships, Doctor!" She's calling out over the klaxon sound of the TARDIS. "Show me something amazing!"

And that is all it takes to relight the fire of a fading star.

THE END


End file.
